


Good children should be seen and not heard but this kid was clearly never taught that

by ChipperChemical



Series: Dream SMP stuff [8]
Category: Video Blogging RPF
Genre: D:, Does anyone truly know how to tag? No., Gen, Other, Tommy gets drunk with power, Tommy is just a kid and I feel like we all forget that sometimes, [launches self off a cliff], anyway back to crime, have fun with the fic loser i'm going to get ice-cream, hurt/comfort probably, i am simply here, i have zero (0) regrets, i just think they're neat, i wrote this in a forest and you can tell, i'm still sad about my can of cola one second let me go mourn, my can of Coca-Cola just ran out as i'm tagging this, oh boy oh gee!, ok i'm back :), same tbh, so Techno is an older brother pogchamp, stupid tags are a consistency on my profile, the blood god is often mentioned don't worry about it xx, y'all remember bayblades? yeah that has nothing to do with the fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-10
Updated: 2020-10-10
Packaged: 2021-03-07 20:27:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,371
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26933587
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ChipperChemical/pseuds/ChipperChemical
Summary: Techno isn't mentally prepared to deal with this.Techno is not mentally prepared to deal with this.Techno meets a kid in the woods, which wouldn't be too bad except this kid is alone and not afraid and Techno is something to be feared.
Relationships: Dave | Technoblade & TommyInnit
Series: Dream SMP stuff [8]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2181660
Comments: 12
Kudos: 576





	Good children should be seen and not heard but this kid was clearly never taught that

**Author's Note:**

> y'all reading my writing: i like your funny words, magic man !!!!!!!!
> 
> also this was inspired by some posts on @/_writing_ideas_ on Instagram :)

_They claimed that death would bow to no mortal._

_I've never failed to kill those in my way, those who try and stop me from my goal, and I've had one foot in the grave more times than I'm willing to admit. Power courses through my veins, power that I worked damn hard to get, and I'll use it to get what I want._

_Either I'm no mere mortal, or I'm the first to have death at my feet._

_I'm not sure which option is more tantalising._

✎✐✎✎✐✎✎✐✎✎✐✎✎✐✎

Birds muted their chirping as he passed, his long red cloak draping behind him, dragging across the woodland floor, a constant reminder of what he would consider his achievements. Perhaps it was that cold, dead look in his eyes, or maybe it was the way his pale hand gripped the netherite axe, as if trying to take it from him would certainly end with it through your neck, but either way, the lizards scurried out of sight behind a thicket, and the birds hopped away, staying as silent as possible.

Regardless of the life which the forest once held, this was all perfectly natural to Techno, the silence and the respect. Every living creature seemed to understand that someone — something — like him was best left alone.

Well, almost every living creature.

"Hey!" A young voice called out, and before Techno could discover where it came from, there was a loud rustling from his left, to which he brandished his axe and waited. After a moment and a few muttered cusses, a child appeared from the bushes, with fair hair rustled by the cruel woods and blue eyes sparkling, numerous colourful bandages stuck on him wonkily, his red-and-white shirt crumpled and his blue jeans ripped and cut, whether intentionally or not Techno couldn't tell.

"I like your hair." The boy grinned, quickly pushing his fringe from his eyes to get a better look at the taller, who simply stared at him coldly, unimpressed, unsure why this fucking child was talking to him, "It's pink."

Once again, Techno found no need to reply, breathing out slowly and turning back to the path, continuing his walk. Now, either this kid was terribly oblivious or Techno wasn't obvious enough because, despite his clear disinterest, the child followed him, and actually, now that Techno considered it, the child wasn't too young at all, landing somewhere in the 15-17 range, despite the blue bandaid on his cheek.

"Where are you going?" The boy chirped, sticking to Techno's side and bouncing in his step, smiling blissfully as you'd expect a child to do, "We're quite far in the forest now..."

The familiar crackling of the twigs and leaves beneath his boots comforted Techno, guiding his mind to settle and think rationally once again, considering his situation. He'd never been one for conversation, especially with those younger than him, but some dreaded part of his mind encouraged him to listen to the boy, to entertain his mindless comments and idle attempts to get a laugh or two. Something about him struck Techno as odd, or maybe it was just how this kid didn't seem fazed by anything about him. Intriguing.

"I don't like being in the forest, y'know," The kid piped up, and Techno spared him a single glance, noting how his eyes darted around, though he tried to play it off as natural, "Too many birds." As he continued walking, he muttered, almost like Techno wasn't supposed to hear, "I'm scared of birds."

Finally, Techno paused his strides, breaking into a chuckle and slamming a hand over his mouth uselessly in a vain attempt to stifle it as the boy also stilled, huffing and crossing his arms. Now, Techno didn't particularly believe the phobia was stupid or childish: it was simply redundant to be afraid of such things around someone of the likes of Techno.

"Good news: you won't have to worry about birds with me." Techno replied after recovering from his hiccup, gluing the shattered shards of his dead persona back together and straightening his face before he continued walking, the blond at his side no matter what.

"Really? That's sick!" He grinned, punching a fist to the sky, whether in triumph or blasphemy to god, Techno couldn't say, "What's your name, big man?"

Techno considered this for longer than he probably should've, mentally debating the pros and cons of admitting to this boy his name. As he would've expected, the cons outweighed the pros without a question, but what was the point of living if he didn't go against logic every once and a while? He was a man of knowledge, not a man of common sense.

"Techno." He answered, looking once again at the boy and noticing his eyes light up in admiration before he nodded happily, meeting Techno's gaze and shivering, seeming like he was going to look away but instead holding eye contact a moment longer, only breaking it when he got distracted by a movement in the shrubbery.

"Techno's an awesome name. I'm going to call you Big T." The teen decided, nodding once to himself as confirmation, "I'm Tommy! Don't you ever forget it!"

Tommy: a boyish name for a boyish kid.

"And, on the subject of learning more about each other," Tommy continued, and Techno felt anxiety brew in his stomach, apprehensive of what he might be asked, "You already know my biggest fear, so what's yours?"

"Birds are your biggest fear?" Techno mused, fighting back a grin as Tommy groaned, upset.

"Shut up! You don't need to rub it in." He grumbled, "C'mon, Big T. Spill."

"Well—" Techno hummed for a moment, still not entirely sure why he was listening to a literal child but enjoying it either way, "—I don't have any fears."

"Really? No fears at all?!" Tommy exclaimed in disbelief, "No way. You're lying."

"I can only wish I were." Techno sighed, still walking further and further into the forest.

"You're not even scared of spiders?"

"Nope."

"Ghosts?"

"Nope."

"Clowns?"

"Nope."

"Ghost clowns?"

"Double nope."

"What about death?"

That made Techno hesitate, something he rarely did, the words sitting on the edge of his tongue but not quite sure enough to be said. After a single moment of silence — Techno had gathered that Tommy didn't like quiet — he replied.

"Death's an old friend of mine."

"That's a flex." Tommy commented, not dwelling on the cryptic answer for long as he continued looking around, watching each of the birds who suddenly hopped away near Techno and smiling to himself.

"I have a question," Techno began, and before Tommy could say anything, he was already asking it, "How far can you walk into a thirty mile forest?"

"Really? Thirty miles!" Tommy stated confidently, something representing pride flickering in his eyes despite the simplicity of the question, "Duh."

"Nope." Techno hummed, noticing how Tommy's expression flickered quickly before morphing into confusion, where it settled, "You can only walk fifteen miles until you're leaving the forest."

"That's stupid." Tommy sighed, crossing his arms angrily and looking away while still managing to walk in a straight line, "What kind of answer is that?!"

"The correct kind."

"Only technically!"

"Isn't technical correctness the best way to be correct?" Techno asked almost smugly, still holding his axe in a vice-like grip in fear that Tommy would try something, but based on how their conversation was going, it certainly wasn't likely.

"Not when you're the one being corrected!" Tommy exclaimed, unfolding his arms and shoving his hands into his jean pockets, not entirely sure what do to with them, as Techno laughed at the protest, "So, you can only go halfway in before you start going out?"

"Exactly." He smiled, glad that Tommy understood the answer he got.

"Oh. Just like life then."

Techno stopped.

"What?" Tommy asked, tilting his head innocently enough after Techno had been stuck in place for a while, staring at the ground intensely and tensing his jaw. Not exactly thinking about what he was doing, Techno lunged at Tommy, grabbing his wrists and shoving him against a nearby tree, swinging his axe right next to the kid's face and narrowly missing, clear by the yelp which echoed through the forest as he placed his hand the other side of Tommy, effectively trapping him.

"What do you know that you shouldn't? You clearly know something unknowable." Techno scowled, trying to fit the mismatched pieces together like an impossible jigsaw puzzle. The way this kid wasn't fazed by Techno's behaviour; shrugging off his cryptic comments or the fact that he had an axe; not questioning the wildlife skittering away from them; talking to some stranger far out in the forest; joking about life and death like it was his business: Tommy wasn't normal.

"What the fuck, what the fuck?!" Tommy shouted, lifting his hands up in a pitiful surrender motion as his eyes scanned Techno's searching for any hint of empathy or regret, where he found nothing, "Let me go, Techno!"

"What do you know?" Techno repeated, and Tommy clocked that he wouldn't get out of there without giving an answer, but still, he was stubborn.

"Nothing! I don't know what fuck you're on about! Let me go!"

"Tell me." Techno growled, a new depth to his voice which Tommy was certain wasn't there before, but that wasn't the biggest of his problems at the moment.

"No! No! I don't know what you mean! Let me the fuck go!" Tommy struggled, briefly considering if he should try and run, only to realise that Techno was much bigger and stronger than him, and there was no-one around for what could be miles.

"I'm sure you're quite attached to your head, Tommy..." Techno mused, yanking his axe from the splintered tree bark and holding it loosely against Tommy's neck, making his breath hitch in such a way that only someone as accommodated with fear as Techno would notice, "It would be a shame if I were to change that."

"Okay, okay, fine! God, fine, I'll speak!" Tommy exclaimed, deciding that his life meant more to him than some stupid information and, despite Techno not showing any intentions of backing off, he felt calmer, "Fucking hell... Get your axe away!"

"Speak first." Techno bartered, and Tommy really wasn't in the fucking mood to argue, so he just slumped, sighing and accepting his situation at face-value.

"I know... a few things." Tommy began, not entirely sure where Techno wanted him to start (the literal blade on his neck ready to slice his windpipe at any given moment wasn't helping either, but hey, what could he do about it?), "The- The blood god?"

"What about them?" Techno's gaze was steely and cold and dead and Tommy wanted it off of him.

"They're— Uh, they— Um— I just—" Tommy stuttered, only motivated to pull himself together when the blade was pushed more forcefully against him, not enough to draw blood but certainly enough to make him uncomfortable, "Okay, okay— So, the blood god... They're- well, they're a god, and... and, the more you kill or hurt other people, the more they f-favour you, and eventually, they'll give you power— if, if you kill enough people, that is."

Tommy gulped, meeting Techno's eyes once again and fighting back a shudder, feeling pathetic at how quickly he fell apart as soon as his life was in direct danger, "And the more people you- um, kill, the more powerful you'll get. And..." Tommy spared a glance to a lone bird flying overhead, steering clear of Techno, "And other creatures can sense this power, so they run. Humans can feel it too, but it comes as more of a bad gut feeling, than- uh, than anything else."

Techno relaxed the pressure on Tommy's neck, making the younger sigh in relief; Techno thought for a moment, probably considering his options, before pushing himself away from the tree, giving Tommy his freedom and holding his axe casually in his hand, as he had been.

"Walk with me again." It didn't exactly require a response, but Tommy nodded anyway, moving away from the tree and to Techno's side, albeit further away than he was before, continuing to walk by his side, "Do you get a bad gut feeling about me, Tommy?"

"Will I be in more danger if I say yes or no?" Tommy questioned, not exactly wanting to answer the mildly intrusive question.

"You'll be in more danger if you lie to me." Techno threatened, and he could see in Tommy's eyes that he didn't need to be told twice.

"Well... Kind of. Not really. Maybe?" Tommy shrugged.

"That's three different answers."

"I— Okay, listen:" Rubbing his eyes quickly with his thumb and index finger, Tommy began speaking, "I was just walking back home through forest from my friend's house and I got a really bad feeling that something was wrong and I needed to get out of here. I thought that was stupid and shit but I wasn't going to fucking argue so I started leaving. I was going to walk on the path but then I saw your hair and I got drawn to it, and I wanted to see you, so I called out and here we are. I don't feel the bad feeling anymore, it disappeared when I spoke to you."

"It usually gets worse when people speak to me." Techno pondered, wondering if he'd ever seen an instance like this but finding nothing, "How do you know about the blood god, then?"

"Long story." Tommy replied before realising he'd need to give an actual response if he wanted to keep his head, "Me and Tubbo — that's my friend, his name is Tubbo — we were just messing around at his house, and his dad owns this, like, huge-ass library for no reason, so obviously we were in there, trying to, y'know, find something interesting."

From the corner of his eye, Techno noticed Tommy smiling, probably remembering the fun he'd had with his friend, "And we found this massive book. It was on the very bottom shelf at the back but it was red and I love the colour red so I got it out while Tubbo carried on looking around. He went into a different corridor with even more books and explored while I flipped through this red book. It was really old and destroyed and it smelled like demon shit and piss and cum, but I read it anyway and it was something about the blood god, so naturally, I got really interested."

Techno hummed, and Tommy took that as a sign to keep going, "So, I thought it was stupid and funny so I put the book back and went to find Tubbo, right? We fucked around a bit more then went outside to this forest and started playing in here, just climbing trees and shit. 'Boys will be boys', y'know, so we started throwing rocks at each other; I can't remember how it started but it was fun and no-one was getting hurt, it's just one of those stupid things you do as a kid. Well, I managed to hit Tubbo in the head with a rock — bloody good hit, by the way — and he fell over and clutched his head."

By now, Techno was interested, listening to every small detail Tommy mentioned and taking note of it all as they still walked through the forest, "So, obviously I went to see if he was okay and he was bleeding. But, instead of helping him, I just—... I don't know what came over me, but I felt so... powerful."

Tommy clenched his fists, a glint of something almost sadistic in his eyes, "I felt important, Techno. Like I could do anything. I just stood there for a while, staring at him and just feeling so fucking incredible, but then he started crying, and that apparently took me out of that weird-ass trance because I helped him up and took him to his house to get bandages. It took me a while, but I eventually figured that the blood god actually exists and that's what I felt."

"So, all the bandages and bandaids on you?" Techno connected the dots, realising what Tommy was probably doing but wanting to hear it from the kid himself, who sighed.

"Well, at first, I tried it on myself, suddenly becoming more 'clumsy' and hurting himself more, but it didn't really work the same. I didn't want to start getting into fights, I swear, I really didn't, but when you're given an opportunity for so much raw power..." Tommy's eyes sparkled with greed, and Techno was tempted to praise the boy, but he bit back.

"I'll ask you again," Techno cleared his throat, and Tommy stared, those childish blue eyes holding much darker secrets than Techno could imagine, "Did you get a bad gut feeling when you saw me?"

Tommy answered, voice lower than a whisper, looking away. Unsatisfied, Techno scowled, "Louder."

"I felt your power and I wanted it!" Tommy exclaimed, squeezing his eyes shut and throwing his arms out, "You're so powerful, living creatures literally run from you! I wanted it! I wanted it!"

"So, you knew damn well what I had to do to receive this power, and yet you still approached me?" Techno clarified, only snickering when Tommy nodded, "That's pretty dumb."

"Hey, shut up!" Tommy defended, huffing in his upset and shoving his hands into his jean pockets, "It was on impulse."

"Fine, fine, whatever." Techno brushed it off, shrugging, and throughout all of this, he never stopped walking into the forest, his legs never tiring or aching. He realised long ago that the woods weren't normal, but he didn't know what 'normal' was anymore, so what did it really matter to him?

They walked in silence for a while, the cloud of quiet settled over them like a layer of snow, spare for Tommy's soft humming and clicking, likely to substitute for the woodland animals which would usually be chirping or croaking amongst the trees. Each step they took, the sunshine spilling in from the canopy became brighter and brighter, painting the forest in a whole new light, both literally and metaphorically.

"I don't think I want power anymore." Tommy stated, as if making his mind up on a choice he'd considered long and hard. With a hum, Techno looked over at the kid, noticing his downcast eyes, a hint of something more glazed over them which, despite Techno's lack of experience with others, he knew was regret.

"Why's that?" Techno questioned, not entirely knowing what answer he would hear; often, when he asked a question, he already knew somewhat of an answer, but on this one, he was clueless, clouded in the fog of the unknown.

"Well..." Tommy hummed, presumably thinking about how to phrase his abstract thoughts to Techno.

"Well?"

"Do you know how much responsibility that is?" Tommy asked, though it seemed fruitless to ask Techno, of all people. "I don't want that. I'm just a kid. I want to be a kid, Techno."

Then, they took a final step, their shoes imprinting into the soft grass rather than the rough, trodden forest path. The sunlight spilled over the scene, a beautiful place of greenery and light: a place so familiar to Tommy. Techno opted to ignore the grass below his feet slowly fading to a desaturated black, instead placing a hand on Tommy's shoulder, looking at him and, for once, smiling.

"Go be a kid, Tommy." Tommy hesitated, but his uncertainty was short-lived as he looked at Techno determinedly, giving a single nod as confirmation before running off, through the field and onto the pavement by the side of the road, his muscle memory reminding him that Tubbo's house was only a few blocks away. As he decided where he wanted to go, he looked back to the outskirts of the forest, giving an excited wave to Techno before darting away, disappearing behind a building. Though he surely didn't see it, as Tommy sprinted off to his future, Techno waved back, a small smile still playing on his lips, the first in many years.

Tommy had walked his thirty miles.

The kid deserved a break.

**Author's Note:**

> oh wow what an adventure that was


End file.
